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Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Zeta Control of Coahuila

Borderland Beat

Of course this is not news to us in Coahuila, and there are some inaccuracies in the report, such as the number of disappeared which even by government approximations there are over 1400. But it is a little insight to the hold Zetas have of the state....Paz, Chivis

Few outside Coahuila state noticed. Headlines were rare. But
steadily, inexorably, Mexico's third-largest state slipped under the control of
its deadliest drug cartel, the Zetas.

The aggressively expanding Zetas took advantage of three
things in this state right across the border from Texas: rampant political
corruption, an intimidated and silent public, and, if new statements by the
former governor are to be believed, a complicit and profiting segment of the
business elite. It took scarcely three years.

What happened to Coahuila has been replicated in several
Mexican states — not just the violent ones that get the most attention, but
others that have more quietly succumbed to cartel domination. Their tragedies
cast Mexico's security situation and democratic strength in a much darker light
than is usually acknowledged by government officials who have been waging a war
against the drug gangs for six years.

Raul Vera

"We are a people under siege, and it is a region-wide
problem," said Raul Vera, the Roman Catholic bishop of Coahuila. A
violence once limited to a small corner of the state has now spread in ways few
imagined, he said.

What sets the Zetas apart from other cartels, in addition to
a gruesome brutality designed to terrorize, is their determination to dominate
territory by controlling all aspects of local criminal businesses.

Not content to simply smuggle drugs through a region, the
Zetas move in, confront every local crime boss in charge of contraband, pirated
CDs, prostitution, street drug sales and after-hour clubs, and announce that
they are taking over. The locals have to comply or risk death.

And so it was in Coahuila. One common threat from Zeta
extortionists, according to Saltillo businessmen: a thousand pesos, or three
fingers.

With the Zetas meeting little resistance, wheels greased by
a corrupt local government, there was little violence. But the people of
Coahuila found themselves under the yoke of a vicious cartel nonetheless.

"It was as if it all fell from the sky to the
Earth," said Eduardo Calderon, a psychologist who works with migrants,
many of whom have been killed in the conflict. "We all knew it was
happening, but it was as if it happened in silence."

The "silence" ended in rapid-fire succession in a
few weeks' time starting mid-September. Coahuila saw one of the biggest mass
prison breaks in history, staged by Zetas to free Zetas; the killing of the son
of one of the country's most prominent political families (a police chief is
the top suspect); and, on Oct. 7, the apparent slaying of the Zetas' top leader
by federal troops who say they stumbled upon him as he watched a baseball game.

"Apparent" because armed commandos brazenly stole
the body from local authorities within hours of the shooting. The military
insists that the dead man was Heriberto Lazcano, Mexico's most feared fugitive,
acknowledging that he had been living comfortably and freely in Coahuila for
some time.

"He was like Pedro in his house," former Gov. Humberto
Moreira said, using an expression that means he was totally at home and could
go anywhere.

The Zetas had such confident dominion over the state that
Lazcano, alias the Executioner, and the other top Zeta leader, Miguel Angel
Trevino, regularly used a vast Coahuila game reserve to hunt zebras they
imported from Africa.

Since their formation in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a
paramilitary bodyguard for the then-dominant Gulf cartel, the Zetas operated
primarily in Tamaulipas state on Mexico's northeastern shoulder and down the
coast of Veracruz and into Guatemala.

For most of that time, Coahuila, rich in coal mines and with
a booming auto industry, was used by cartels as little more than a transit
route for drugs across the border. The Zetas maintained a presence limited to
Torreon, the southwestern Coahuila city that served as a bulwark against the
powerful Sinaloa cartel that reigned in neighboring Durango state.

In 2010, the Zetas broke away from the Gulf cartel,
triggering a war that bloodied much of Tamaulipas and spilled over into
neighboring states. Coahuila, with its rugged mountains and sparsely populated
tracts, became a refuge for the Zetas, and they spread out across the state,
including this heretofore calm capital, Saltillo.

Even if the violence hasn't been as ghastly as in other
parts of Mexico, nearly 300 people, many of them professionals, have vanished
in Coahuila, probably kidnapped by the Zetas for ransom or for their skills.

The man in charge of Coahuila during most of the Zeta
takeover was Moreira, the former governor. After five years in office, he left
the position a year ahead of schedule, in early 2011, to assume the national
leadership of the Institutional Revolutionary Party on the eve of its
triumphant return to presidential power after more than a decade.

But scandal followed Moreira, including a debt of more than
$3 million he had saddled Coahuila with, allegedly from fraudulent loans. He
was eventually forced to quit the PRI leadership, dashing what many thought to
be his presidential aspirations.

Tragedy followed when Moreira's son Jose Eduardo was shot
twice in the head execution-style in the Coahuila town of Acuna early last
month. Investigators believe that most of the Acuna police department turned
Jose Eduardo over to the Zetas as a reprisal for the killing of a nephew of
Trevino. The police chief was arrested.

Killing the son
of a former governor — and nephew of the current one, Humberto's brother Ruben
— was a rare strike by drug traffickers into the heart of Mexico's political
elite.

In mourning,
Humberto Moreira gave a series of remarkably candid interviews in which he
accused entrepreneurs from Coahuila's mining sector of sharing the wealth with
top drug traffickers who in turn used the money to buy weapons and pay off
their troops. They killed his son, he said.

Mining in
Coahuila is huge and notoriously dangerous, with companies routinely flouting
safety regulations and workers dying in explosions and accidents. The depth to
which drug traffickers have penetrated the industry is being investigated by
federal authorities.

The question on
the minds of many Mexicans was: If Moreira was so aware of criminal
penetration, why didn't he stop it?

Critics suggest
that during his tenure, he was happy to turn a blind eye to the growth of the
Zetas as long as he could pursue his business and political interests. He
denies that now and says fighting organized crime was up to the federal
government; the federal government blames state officials, in Coahuila and
elsewhere, for coddling the drug lords.

"The
northern governors have long cut deals with the cartels that operate in their
domains. The pattern in the north is cooperation," said George W. Grayson,
a Mexico scholar at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who
has written extensively on the Zetas and Mexican issues.

"The
Coahuila police are among the most corrupt in all Mexico."

The extent to
which the Zetas' tentacles had penetrated state government became clear this
year when federal authorities discovered a protection racket that dated well
into Humberto Moreira's administration and was led by none other than the
brother of the state attorney general. According to the federal investigation,
he and 10 other state officials were being paid roughly $60,000 a month by the
Zetas to leak information to the gang.

The nearly 3
million residents of Coahuila, meanwhile, find ways to survive and accommodate.

In rural areas
where the Zetas are most commonly seen on the streets, people have learned to
be mute and blind. In cities such as Saltillo, they change their habits, don't
go out at night, send their children to school in other cities.

A businessman
whose family has lived here for generations said, "We are in a state of
war, without realizing when or how we got there."

Ha in the. Photo lazca shows how asshole he is he went to tijuana and killed one of those donkeys with fake stripes looking like a zebra fuck you in hell lazca. Poor donkey got misstaken by a zebra noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

thats a good question. But I think if it were for one year it probably would say so. but i could be wrong. I will say that there are no official records in drugwar crimes in Coahuila so everything is conjecture. Isn't that amazing?

jeez mexican people, if you know where a wanted man is or where he haunts, and are afraid of these cartel people finding you out, download the tor browser, it enables you to go online without being "seen" contact the dea collect the loot get the fuck out.. no biggie.

I'm not type to say that The U.S. Should invade México. I know the infinitesimal problems that that would bring. But.... If the situation worsens, there might be trouble. The cartel a-holes wont like having the U.S. in their business. We come in heavy and step hard. If they can't behave then I could envision U.S. military intervention. I know about Mexico's constitution and their sovergnity so i am only talking about as a last resort.

not invade but use the same tactics that u.s. use for law infosment if they use the same way of dealing with criminals and get red of all derty politicians we would see a inormes change jst by doing that. starting by the MORDIDADAS and keep going up till everything gets better.TODO POR UN MEXICO MEJOT

violence has erupted in acuna also since september. none hits the media...until Zs say so. example is night of Lalo's death...the 4 guys killed and tossed in the rio bravo. one guy was not dead he made it to the Del Rio side and was in the hospital.

me and a friend are sure that he is Victor. He was in geo and deported w/o ID he was using a ficticious name. he was "apprehended" shortly after with healing marks and scabs on his face.

Thanks again for the news we never hear in the USA. We barely get the mews when it happens here..."EL CHAPO MAYBE DAUGHTER." I pray for all the people of Mexico who are victims of the cartels and the drug addicts in the USA, all who contribute to this nightmare!

I have always said that all was way to calm on the surface in Coah. and that i always suspected that the Zeta leadership enjoyed a very high level of comfort in that state. It offered a natural geographical and political safe-haven for the Zetas, but my question is what now? The lid is off and what will come in the future for this state? EPN the new president was and probably still is friends with Bert Moreira and the Moreira Clan, will it be business as usual once EPN take power, will the PRI make a pact like in the past with the criminal underworld just to have a semblance of peace. will El CDS and El Chapo come back to Coah. and claim back a state that years ago belonged to them and by trying to take Coah. from the Zetas the state will become the next big front on Cartel vs. Cartel war? I have questions way to many question?? Cristero

...lots of good info on this site...'stumbled' upon it by chance reading up on the Lalo Moreira murder in Acuna...my family is originally from Acuna, lived there until we started receiving kidnap and extorsion threats and the local police wouldn't help...been six years now, and my family weren't the only ones this was happening to back then...there are lots of us..problem is, you report it to the police (who are all working for the cartels), and the threats become worse...ask around, this is not a new issue, been going on since Garza and his cronies were in the Presidencia Municipal...

for 6:38why do you ask about chivis in coahuila? what a loser you are. she is very known here. search the BB for the article ovemex wrote about her trip from coahuila to mier. she is the real deal. we are fortunate to have her and her work in mexico and centro americano

I have always said that all was way to calm on the surface in Coah. and that i always suspected that the Zeta leadership enjoyed a very high level of comfort in that state.In my work with impoverished people and my fight against cartel thugs,i have faced down many on my own and i am winning in my battle.If only as human beings we can come together?What a coming that would be?Just think of it?Maybe in the future it would be possible,but i will continue on my path of self worth and education.Cristero

10:30 good question. one heard from each generation of humans. I think we can stop waiting for the world to change, and make a different in our world as individuals. Help a cause or a single person. do something.

"n of celsos right hand man being killed"?Is Celso still in jug?I know he got arrested,but who knows what happened to him?He was pretty powerful that guy didn't he get his relative released from jail by threatening to raise cain?And who was his right hand man?C,mon man clear some shit up for us.Post some more comments on it,and about whats goin on?Any idea about where Martinez is now?

@Anonymous 6:41PM...Not me but your so called father (hopefully the red neck trucker is your dad, not sure though) since your mother worked at that night sleazy joint down the highway...Hopefully you stupid redneck can locate your stalker "so called dad"....hahaha OR maybe you have lots of trucking dads.

Caw Caw Caw went the Black Raven and Coo Coo Coowent the White Crow..! So let's see what Now Happens in Beautiful Down Town Saltillo Coahuila.Torreon is allready bought and paid for, so let's see what the new Year brings? Omar and Big HermanoMiguel are running but not Scared!